I turned my Android phone’s annoying AI button into its most powerful keyboard shortcut

Nowadays, you can’t avoid phones that boast AI capabilities. Smartphone releases focus on AI; Hardware often takes a back seat, and each brand has its own flavor of AI assistant. Nowhere is this more evident than when phones come with dedicated AI buttons.

My phone’s AI button was its most attractive feature. However, once I realized I could program it to do a range of non-AI tasks, it became a button I used more often on my device.

AI buttons are a common feature on smartphones as various brands try to showcase their AI services. These keys are separate from the power and volume buttons and instantly activate AI assistants and features.

Motorola’s latest phones, including the Razr Fold and Motorola Edge, include dedicated AI buttons on the left side. This is not limited to premium devices, because Nothing Phone 4a has features a dedicated AI button. I recently switched to the HONOR 600 Pro as a daily driver, which has a dedicated AI button on the lower right side of the bezel.

However, as someone who doesn’t use AI on a daily basis, I saw this as an addition that I didn’t always find necessary. I’m already annoyed that the Gemini is tied to the power button and home button. When I run Circle to Search, it happens randomly.

As a result, the AI ​​button was something I would randomly trigger. Then I immediately exit the AI ​​that it launched. I finally decided to search my phone settings to see if I could turn it off. Instead, I realized I could turn it into something useful.

I’m used to AI buttons being relatively limited in functionality. For example, with the AI ​​button on the Motorola Edge 70 I’m currently reviewing, the options for the button are to enable the AI ​​features or disable the button entirely – nothing in between.

But when I went into the HONOR 600 Pro’s AI button options, I was greeted with a plethora of features. The software had options for different gestures – long press, double press and single press. To my surprise, there were quite a few non-AI functions among the features available. This includes using the light, turning on my camera, and changing my phone’s sound mode.

However, when I entered the express service option, I was faced with many other possibilities. The Quick Services feature lets you launch apps and special app features with an AI button. For example, you can use it to open your favorite productivity app. But this feature also allows you to run special tools in applications. For example, I can use it to create a new event in Google Calendar, start a song recognition search in Deezer, or open a password manager in Firefox.

I was surprised by how many apps the Quick Services feature works with. This made me change from seeing button AI as a waste of space to wanting to add more gestures to create more shortcuts.

In the end, I chose a few shortcuts that balance fun, utility, and performance. My long press will launch the Pokémon Go game I play every day. It saves me from having to open the app drawer or create a shortcut on the home screen. Now I can launch the game with a button.

My double-tap gesture now opens Notesnook, my favorite note-taking app. This allows you to quickly refer to and update reminders before they are forgotten. The shortcut was very useful for someone who gets easily distracted when trying to jot down a quick note.

Finally, something to do with my one click light. This comes in handy every night when you turn off the bedroom lights and have to cross the room in the dark to get to bed. When my flashlight is in the quick settings panel, I still hate the split layout of notifications, that’s why using my AI button is much faster.

Not every phone with an AI button has this versatile feature. I currently have a Motorola Edge 70 to review, and the only options for its AI key are AI features or none at all. On Motorola phones, the button is at least out of the way, so it doesn’t feel like an intrusive addition.

However, if phone makers allowed users to use these buttons as universal shortcuts, there would be much less risk of them becoming annoying or white elephants. After all, hidden Android shortcuts like launching the camera app with the power button are still popular among many users. I always get screenshots by holding down the volume and power buttons.

For some reason, button-related gestures seem to stick better with me than on-screen gestures. I can easily remember the AI ​​key combination, but I still can’t swipe down properly with the split notification panel. I still stick with the button menu to navigate through screen gestures.

Instead of another AI feature for consumers, universal AI buttons can offer much more convenience and performance for users. Of course, for AI enthusiasts, AI will always be there if they want to use it for its original purpose.

Until I realized how much HONOR gives users, I found the AI ​​button unnecessary. Now I can’t get enough of it. I hope other phone manufacturers follow suit instead of angrily keeping these buttons locked.